New Era Hats UK and New Era Caps

Fans of the popular headwear brand New Era may be surprised to learn that this label has been around since the 1920's. Originally founded by Ehrhardt Koch with money borrowed from his aunt, the E. Koch Cap Company started life in Buffalo and by the end of its first year was already producing thousands of caps. In 1922, the company changed its name to the very modern sounding 'New Era Cap Company'. Despite the recession, the company did well. Today's range of New Era hats still includes some designs that were popular at the time, such as the 8 panel wool caps called 'flappers' or 'newsboy' caps.

Their venture into sporting caps began in the 1930's with the production of their very first baseball caps. New Era caps competed along with many other companies for the rights to produce baseball caps for the Major League teams. It was around this time that their marketing phrase of 'Quality first, quantity will follow', was coined. By the 1940's New Era hats were sold to sports manufacturers Wilson and Spaulding who sold these on under their own brand labels.

During the Second World War, New Era Caps were available in a range of colours thanks to the home dying of cream fabric in the employee's washing machines at home. Coloured fabrics were not readily available at that time due to war rationing, so their products stood out as a colourful alternative to the other bland hats and caps on the market at that time. By the end of the 40's they had also ventured into the first of the adjustable caps of the market. These were an instant hit and the forerunners of the New Era UK adjustable caps you might buy today. New Era UK caps also have a link with particularly famous events in all our histories as the company even supplied handmade caps to the Apollo 11 moon mission's Splashdown recovery team in 1969. This started a tradition of these teams always sporting New Era caps when retrieving astronauts following space missions.

This label is responsible for the production of some 35 million caps on an annual basis. New Era caps are the headwear worn by every baseball player in the Major League and their Minor affiliates. The brand is probably best known for bringing the 59Fifty to the streets. New Era hats are now worn worldwide and marketed in Britain under the New Era UK branch of the company. New Era caps are worn by filmmaker Spike Lee, who directed their first TV ad. Other fans of New Era and New Era UK caps include David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Dizzee Rascal. read more